[Sylvanfan]

Brown is a pretty intriguing guy to me. Let's face it, if guys like Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter were drafted at 19 instead of 17, they're both going in the top 5 of their draft. But there was also Hugh Jessiman who went really high and never did much.

Although looking back at the 2003 draft the thing to consider is that it was a double cohort...so Jessiman was an early 84 birthday going against guys who were a full year younger than him who were 85 birthdays ( in the draft class not in college). In this draft Brown is the same age as all the other guys, and he is a 98 birthday.

I haven't watched him, so I really can't comment on how he plays. But by studying past drafts, I can't find too many guys in the CHL with that kind of size who put up scoring numbers as 17 year olds. It seems to me that a lot of these bigger guys have played in other leagues. In terms of top 5 guys it's hard to find players outside of Joe Thornton, Lecavalier and Eric Lindros who were 6'-4 or bigger forwards who were drafted in the top 3. There are guys like Bonsignor and Chad Kilger taken in the 4-6 range if you go way back who scored well in Junior but didn't in the pro's. But that's a different era of hockey going back that far.

I'd be interested to hear more about Brown from anyone who's actually watched him a fair bit.

At this point I don't know enough to say draft him at this spot...but the where he plays, and how his stats look to trend, it wouldn't seem like a crazy reach to take him this high either. The upside could very well be there.